Slot 1: Andreas Dimopoulos (Brunel University, UK): Police and Disability: Legal and Policy Considerations from the Social Model and British Sign Language

Abstract: In a recent case from the European Court of Human Rights, Dordevic v Croatia, the ECtHR held that Croatian police violated Art. 3 ECHR, because the police failed to protect a person with intellectual disabilities and his mother from disability harassment. The similarities with Fiona Pilkington’s case are striking. In UK law, Z v Police Commissioner for the Metropolis and Finnigan v Northumbria Police raise some important issues as to how the police address issues of disability. I will briefly discuss these cases in order to argue that the duty to promote equality under the Equality Act 2010 requires a stronger application through the social model of disability: the police has to be able to assess and be responsive to the specific needs of the person with disabilities. In the case of Finnigan this required the use of British Sign Language. I argue that the benefits of wide use of languages such as BSL, or Makaton are not fully appreciated by policy.

Slot 2: Dianne Theakstone (University of Stirling, UK): Title TBC

…currently researching to what extent the governance structures in Scotland and Norway facilitate or impede disabled peoples’ access to independent living.

The final DRF seminar of the 2011-12 academic year is scheduled for tomorrow (3rd May 2012) and we are pleased to announce that there will be an encore.

Date/Time: Fri. 25th May 2012 (Friday) 1.00pm – 2.30pm

Venue: Room 10212 in the Arundel Building, City Campus, Sheffield Hallam University (More information on the venue can be found here.) Please note the change to our usual room.

Join us for:

Everything about us without us: the struggle of disability activists for Independent Living in Iceland

Embla Ágústsdóttir, chairwoman of the independent living cooperative in Iceland (NPA miðstöðin), embla@npa.is

&

Freyja Haraldsdóttir, directress, of the independent living cooperative in Iceland (NPA miðstöðin), freyja@npa.is

Iceland is one of the countries that lacks policy and practice for personal assistance and independent living for disabled people. A user-led cooperative on personal assistance was founded by 33 disabled citizens in Iceland in 2010, who have since been fighting for the recognition of personal assistance as a way in providing services.

The government decided in the beginning of 2011 to start a three-year pilot project following the transference of services for disabled people from the state to the municipalities. This pilot project has been delayed but is in its first stages and will be ongoing until the end of year 2014 when personal assistance is supposed to become a legal right.

In this presentation we want to shed some light on the struggle for independent living in Iceland. We want to share our experience on how this process has developed from the viewpoint of disability activists and how we have experienced the need to fight for our involvement and having a voice, even when it comes to working with disability organizations and the academia.